Ecumenical Council

The pattern was set at Jerusalem, when the apostles and elders met to decide what to ask of Gentile converts. An ecumenical (worldwide) council is the bishops of the whole Church gathered with and under the pope; its solemn definitions of faith and morals are infallible and its decrees bind the universal Church once the pope confirms them. The Church counts twenty-one, and the first seven — Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and three more — gave us the Creed and the doctrine of Christ that all the ancient churches share. A council's authority comes from Christ's promise to the apostles, not from majority vote.